Product description

Known as the Main Street of America and the Mother Road, U.S. Route 66 is the nation's best known highway. Once the microcosm of a culture increasingly connected by automobiles, its sights and attractions are now a fascinating reflection of a nation on the move. Travel this iconic highway through the heart of America with Route 66 Backroads as your guide. This lavishly illustrated book steers you from Chicago to Los Angeles, traveling through the lowlands of the American Plains and the high plateaus of New Mexico and Arizona, from the Great Lakes to the mighty Pacific Ocean, and through major metropolises and remote country towns.Branch away from the Mother Road, and you encounter gems hidden beyond today's standard motels and tourist traps---the quaint frontier communities that date back to the nation's westward expansion; the legacy of ancient native cultures; and the awe-inspiring natural wonders that have graced these lands since time immemorial. State parks, wildlife refuges, museums, historic sites, literary landmarks, and much more are there to be explored within a few hours' drive from the path of Route 66. The fifty trips included here offer new travel opportunities for the thousands of road-trippers who follow this legendary route, looking for something more.

Author information

Jim Hinckley's passion for the open road has translated into regular contributions to a wide variety of periodicals, including Route 66, American Road, and others. He is the author of The Big Book of American Car Culture and Backroads of Arizona. He lives in Kingman, Arizona. Kerrick James has been a professional photographer for more than twenty years. His images have appeared in such publications as Arizona Highways, Sunset, and National Geographic Adventure. He provided the photography for Backroads of Arizona and is the author of Our Arizona. He lives in Mesa, Arizona. Rick and Nora Bowers are professional travel and nature photographers with more than forty years of photography experience between them. Their work has been featured in numerous books and magazines. The Bowers are on the road often, but make their home in Tucson, Arizona.Nora Bowers and her husband Rick Bowers are professional travel and nature photographers with more than forty years of photography experience between them. Their work has been featured in numerous books and magazines. The Bowers are on the road often, but make their home in Tucson, Arizona.Kerrick Jamesu2019 images have appeared in such publications as Arizona Highways, Sunset, and National Geographic Adventure. He provided the photography for Route 66 Backroads, Backroads of Arizona, and Our Arizona. He lives in Mesa, Arizona.Jim Hinckley has contributed to a wide variety of periodicals, including Route 66, American Road, and others. He is the author of Backroads of Arizona, and Route 66 Backroads. He lives in Kingman, Arizona.

Customer reviews

Only venturing away from the freeway will you find the undiscovered remnants of Route 66's legandary history, according to author Jim Hinckley. This guide to the American Mother Road is broken down into managable detaours, enabeling you to discover places where 'the neon still glows and the diners still serve apple pies with fruit picked from the orchard across the road'. Hinckley devotes time to places that are usually only driven through, including tiny mountain communities in Missouri and a remote village in Arizona where mule trains still deliver the post. Route 66's popular attractions are also covered: the Grand Canyon, cities such as San Diego and wild lfie parks. The guide's photography highlights the variety of stunning sites, from iconic Route 66 cafes and memorabilia, abandoned Texas towns to stunning waterfalls and desert landscapes. --Lonely Planet magazine, December 2008&;Stretching from Chicago to Los Angeles, the legendary Route 66 is an iconic landmark all over the world. There are Route 66 associations in more than 20 countries and its popularity now means that many of these coutries even offer Route 66 package tours. But ironically many who would seek the wonders and treasures of Route 66 miss delightful gems waiting to be uncovered just a short detour from the Main Street of America. This is a journet into the backroads along America's Main Street, expoloring the nation's past and it's natural splendours. More than a simple travel guide though, this lavishly illustrated book not only shoes Route 66 as a brdige to the past and the living time capsual that it has become, it also provides a wide array of often overlooked attractions, historic sites and scenic wonders. --MG Enthusiast;Stretching form Chicago to Los Angeles, the legendary route 66 is an iconic landmark all over the world. There are Route 66 associations in more than 20 countries and its popularity means that many of these countries now even offer Route 66 package tours. But ironically, many who seek the wonders and treasures of Route 66 miss delightfu; gems waiting to be uncovered just a short detour from the Main Street of America. More than a simple travel gudie, this lavishly illustrated book is a visual treat, sure to inspire dreams fo visiting this most famous of highways. Not only does it show Route 66 as a bridge to the past and a living time capsual, it also provides a wide array of often overlooked attractions, historic sites and scenic wonders. --Triumph World, February, 2009 For a more in-depth look at anothr classic route, Route 66 Backroads is perfect. Follow the iconic road across the USA, trversing prarie and vast plains en route --Wanderlust magazine, February, 2009&If you ever plan to motor west. Take my way that's the highway that's the best. Get your kicks on Route 66 ... A whole generation grew up with those spine-tingling lyrics to the rock song.That, and maybe Jack Kerouac's On The Road, inspired young men, and women, to go West and when they had arrived in the US seek out and travel the fabled highway.They probably know it winds from Chicago to LA - more than 2000 miles of motorway.But writer Hinckley, and three photographers, suggest here that the real American experience lies among the highways and byways just off the so-called Mother Road., or Main Street USA.In a lavishly-illustrated 200 pages, complete with helpful maps, they take the reader and traveller into places where momma still makes apple pie the American way and where new and unimagined delights await the determined explorer.Route 66 carves a giant S shape across the North American continent, from beside Lake Michigan in the North, to the shores of the Pacific in the West. Along the way it takes in familiar place names like St Louis, Oklahoma, Amarillo. --Daily Mail, February 2009This is your essential guide to 'scenic trips and adventures from the Mother Road' --Route 66 magazine, Winter 2008

For many petrolheads, Route 66 is the road trip to end all road trips. Stretching form Chicago to Santa Monica, it passes through some of the most spectacular scenery that the US has to offer. many of the older buildings and towns have now dissapeared completely, but there are still some gems to be found, especially if you travel of teh beaten track. This new title from Voyageur Press takes you on a journey throguh some of the lesser known routes as you come of the 'Mother Road'.The book has 50 different routes, stretching along the length of Route 66, beautifully captured with some breathtaking phootgraphy. Now, where's my passport and driving license? --American Cars World, Sept, 2009

I have been enjoying in the last few days a beautiful book named Route 66 Backroads: Your Guide to Scenic Side Trips & Adventures from the Mother Road. It was written by Jim Hinckley and features photography by Kerrick James, Rick Bowers, and Nora Mays Bowers. The title is somewhat misleading, but not in a bad way. Before looking through the book, I had assumed that it would highlight 66 sites and other places of interest nearby. While sites such as these are covered, the scenic side trips take you far away from the Mother Road, showing many of the other interesting areas within the eight Route 66 states... The photography throughout the book is stunning, and the narrative compelling. I give the book my highest praise: it makes me want to jump in the car and take a road trip-WindyCityRoadWarrior dot com--What s different about this tome: It offers 50 side strips on the road from Chicago to L.A., detours that could bring you face to face with the neon/big fins/diners/motels feeling you re looking for. If only I hadn t gotten rid of my 57 Chevy...LA Times--If you intend to explore route 66, this book will serve as a helpful guide. And even if you are not planning such a trip, the book s photographs provide a remarkable catalog of natural and manmade wonders that will hold your interest --RV Life, August 2008

Review quote

"Famous Route 66 begins at Grant Park in Chicago and ends by the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, Calif. The road and this book recall a time before franchise restaurants and chain motels choked America's highways. The journey begins in Illinois, travels through Missouri and Kansas, continues through Oklahoma, crosses Texas, enters New Mexico, traverses Arizona before ending in California. In total, the guide consists of 50 driving tours, which include plenty of side trips off the Mother Road. What truly sets the book apart from similar titles, though, is the more than 200 color photographs by photographers Kerrick James, Rick Bowers and Nora Mays Bowers." - Arizona Republic
""Route 66 Backroads" takes us on some of those journeys and in the process makes us wish for more memory cards for the camera and more days to spend on the road...Jim Hinckley takes us to with his lively narrative that both informs and intrigues. Through excellent photography of Kerrick James, as well as Rick and Nora Bowers, the places come alive and entice you to visit. For many of us, Route 66 is the adventure, the moveable feast of cross-country journey, but close to the Road, there are places equally as interesting and exciting. Route 66 Backroads explores some of these places, and adds even more reasons for making that next Route 66 trip." - Route 66 Magazine